SportsCrack Blog

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Matt Holliday announced today on the Doug Gottlieb Show on ESPN radio that he has decided to re-sign with the St. Louis Cardinals with a 7 year deal reportedly worth between $119-120 million. Wow! This is a great contract for Holliday because he will be staying in a baseball city in St. Louis and will be getting way over payed while doing it. Listen, when I think of franchise players who should make $100 million plus the names of Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Manny Ramirez come to mind. Those guys deserve every dollar they get because they bring fans to the park and put up monster numbers year in and out. I don't think of Holliday as the same guy. This doesn't mean he can't be one of those guys but I just think his career has benefited greatly from playing in Coors Field and the Cardinals are now going to pay him to put up 40 plus home runs a season with 120 plus RBI's as a marque player. I don't see it happening.

Granted the Cardinals couldn't afford to lose Hollida since besides Pujols and Ryan Ludwick their lineup has very little proven power it just seems that they went beyond what it should have taken to re-sign him. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Mets were NOT negotiating with Holliday. From reports I have read it sounded like the only other contender for Holliday's services was the Baltimore Orioles. A team with 12 consecutive losing seasons. He wasn't going to go to Baltimore unless they offered him $150 million.

So what does Albert Pujols get now since Holliday is getting paid more? Honestly I think Pujols deserves at least $30 million a season, probably more. He is the best player in the game and he should never play for anybody else besides the Redbirds. He is the face of the franchise not named Stan Musial. Pujols is a free agent after the 2011 season. If the Cardinals are willing to spend like the Red Sox and Yankees do ($140 million plus a season) then it shouldn't be a problem giving Pujols a huge extension while paying for Holliday and adding other stars to fill out their roster. But this doesn't look like it will be the case. Starting pitchers Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright will be free agents soon. They won't be taking hometown discounts so the Cardinals could lose at least one of them if not both of them. Without pitching it doesn't matter how good Pujols and Holliday perform.